The bad news is that the New Jersey Casino Control Commission has voted to grant yet another extension on the interminable sale of the Tropicana Atlantic City. The good news that it’s merely been pushed out another month, not the three that butterfingered trustee Justice Gary Stein wanted. The NJCCC finally seems to have run out of patience with this comedy of errors and past time, too.
Then again, the prospect of a Carl Icahn purchase concentrates the mind wonderfully. Since it’s a credit bid, neither the State of New Jersey or former owner Columbia Sussex will see the payday they’ve been envisioning. But if Icahn can get his affiliated creditors to put their whole $1.4 billion in secured debt on the table, it’d crush anything Cordish Co. has offered or is likely to. The mere specter of Icahn has to be very bad news for Tropicana Entertainment CEO Scott Butera. Since the Trop is the engine that drives (or drove, before ColSux CEO William J. Yung III crashed it) his company’s bottom line, Butera has been tireless in his quest to re-obtain the property. If he succeeded, it would also allow him to return victoriously to the market where he made his name as Trump Entertainment Resorts‘ boss. But, through no fault of his, TropEnt is in far worse standing in the Garden State than is Icahn.
If Icahn is primed to re-enter the casino industry that he left not so long ago, it’s a positive augury both for Atlantic City and the business as a whole. It would also enable him to cock a snook at Pinnacle Entertainment, which purchased the old A.C. Sands from Icahn, quickly demolished it, then has been high and dry ever since. Under Icahn’s ownership, the Stratosphere went from being a joke to a successful casino property. His taste in casinos isn’t always pretty (Arizona Charlie’s, anyone?) but it’s proven smart and successful.
